Mark Zuckerberg shows Morgan Freeman voiced AI assistance Jarvis

Jarvis can be reached via text messages sent using Facebook Messenger or via voice based commands, much like what the Amazon Echo does at the moment.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today unveiled the Jarvis AI digital assistant which happened to be the goal he had set for 2016. And though Zuckerberg’s Jarvis is nowhere near to what the Marvel Comics’ character of the same name is able to pull off, the Facebook Jarvis still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Among the tasks that Zuckerberg said the Jarvis is able to do include switching on or off the lights, providing details of where the family dog ‘Beast’ is or what their daughter is up to. These are also the tasks that Zuckerberg wished the AI assistant to be able to do though the video that the CEO released contains a lot more, including some that borders on sheer extravagance. Take for instance Zuckerberg’s cannon equipped wardrobe which shoots the shirts that he wants every time it is asked to do serve a fresh shirt.

A few other jobs that the Mark Zuckerberg’s Jarvis is believed to be able to do at home include getting Zuckerberg’s toast ready at the precise time he wants it or play back songs he or his family wants to listen to. Jarvis will also greet Zuckerberg when he gets up in the morning and provide him all the relevant information. Those can range from the weather info or the appointments he has for the day.

Jarvis is tuned to respond to both voice-based commands or via text messages. Not surprisingly, all text communications is accomplished using Facebook Messenger. Zuckerberg said he personally prefers text commands as he feels voice commands a bit intrusive. Instead, text commands can be read at your convenience.

However, no matter how exciting the prospect of having a personal digital assistant that can be reached via Messenger might seem, the fact is, Jarvis is too closely tied to Mark Zuckerberg house to be deployed successfully elsewhere. Zuckerberg though said he might contemplate launching the Jarvis as an extension of the Facebook Messenger though no firm release schedule has been revealed just yet.

In any case, a formal launch does look possible considering that an AI enabled digital assistant happens to be the latest fad that has most of the tech giants engaged in at the moment. The working of Jarvis already seems to be much like the Amazon Echo, something that has turned out to be a surprise success for the retail giant.

No wonder Google too has stepped into the arena with its Google Home speaker while Microsoft stated they are also in the process of launching similar devices backed by an enhanced Cortana. Maybe Zuckerberg might change his mind and start developing a commercial version of the Jarvis as well.